White poppy denigrates remembrance: Legion

The Island Peace Committee sees its poppies as a complement to the red ones. ((CBC))

The Royal Canadian Legion is upset over a new campaign launched by the Island Peace Committee on Prince Edward Island.

The Legion wants the group to stop distributing white poppies. The Legion's red-poppy campaign is underway, selling the traditional symbol in remembrance of those who died in war.

Peace committee members say their white version stands for non-violent conflict resolution.

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"The people who are distributing these poppies are normally people who have never spent a day in the service of their country in their lives," Jim Ross, president of the Legion's P.E.I. provincial command, told CBC News on Monday. "To denigrate a symbol of the remembrance of people who died for this country certainly is emotional."

Ross said the Legion owns the rights to the poppy symbol, and its national office will likely be writing the peace committee to ask it to stop the white-poppy campaign.